This April I am celebrating—it has been six years since the first blog post. It seems like yesterday when I decided to create, almost by chance, a personal website.
It all started following a presentation I gave at the Madrid Community Film Festival Meetings in December 2011 on digital formats. We were in the midst of a transition in projection formats; the revolution we have experienced in recent years was already underway.
Due to the interest and questions that arose during that session, I decided to create a website to share the presentation and start discussing the topic. Months later, I purchased the domain, set up the site on WordPress, and published the first post on April 4, 2012. The title of that presentation and that first post is very revealing of the problem many festival directors faced: Towards a Standard in Digital Projection at Festivals.
The second post and the first more elaborate one is very special as it shows the state of 35mm during a very specific period, when it was practically disappearing: Definitive Goodbye to 35mm.
In the early years I published very little; the website became basically a tool for discussing formats. If I had to repeat the same email several times explaining to festival organizers that it was better not to send DVDs, that subtitles have their own format, or that Apple ProRes was not a distribution codec, I would write a post to share instead and save myself from having to write the same email over and over again.
The following year in 2013, due to the rise of submission platforms, I dedicated a post to mention them all; without knowing it, I was making the first publication on the Internet on the subject: Short Film Distribution Platforms.
I updated this post recently; even today it continues to be one of the most visited and a reference for directors and producers who are starting to distribute their short films.
From 2016 onwards, I started to take the website more seriously. That year I made two design changes and began publishing regularly every week. From here on, I write more about distribution and festival strategies than about formats. I have also created several downloadable resources that are available for free.
These are some of the most relevant posts that helped me maintain the publishing rhythm in recent years:
The 5 Most Notable Posts That Have Driven the Blog
Successes and Errors in the New Rules for the Goya Short Film Awards
One of the most important posts I published in 2016 was about the Goya Awards rules, which allowed the Academy to correct a few days later the errors I mentioned and which was shared by Cortosfera magazine.
Let’s Talk About the Cannes Short Film Corner
In those days there was also much discussion about the problem of considering the Cannes Short Film Corner as a festival section. This post finally addressed the issue.
How to Make DCP Copies
As DCP has become widespread as an exhibition format, some laboratories have charged very high prices for making copies. Here I explained how to make them easily yourself, as it is not a complicated process.
How to Avoid Fake Festivals
The publication day continues to hold the record for visits per day; it was shared widely and above all many people have confirmed to me that they did not know these festivals existed until they read the post.
Short Film Distribution Strategy at Class A Festivals
This is one of the main posts on festival strategy I have published and it helps me make a comprehensive review of the most important festivals on the circuit.
The Numbers Since 2012
Growth has been steady, increasing followers and visits each month. This growth has also allowed me to create new services to help both directors and producers as well as festivals. Over these years it has accumulated 174,174 sessions and 229,760 page views; at present there are 183 published posts that have generated 566 comments.
One of the numbers that most encourages me is the followers who receive my emails each week; in 2016 there were only 10 followers, and today there are 845 and growing.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you for reading, writing comments, and supporting this blog for so long.